Vítor Pereira on his return to the Dragão: “A lot of emotions” | OneFootball

Vítor Pereira previewed the clash with FC Porto and spoke about his return to the Dragão, a stadium that was his home for eight years.

Vítor Pereira will return to the Estádio do Dragão next Thursday, when Nottingham Forest take on FC Porto in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals. The Portuguese coach showed emotion about returning to his former club, but guaranteed he will not make life easy for Francesco Farioli’s side.

“Look at my smile, so many emotions, so many feelings. I was here for eight years, five in the academy and three with the first team. There are many memories, but tomorrow I will be on the other side. Blue against red… In Portugal, it is FC Porto against Benfica, but tomorrow it will be against Nottingham. It will certainly be a fantastic match,” said the coach of the English team at a press conference.

Referring to the fact that he was the last coach to win back-to-back league titles with FC Porto, Vítor Pereira explained that he has been closely following the club’s current situation.

“FC Porto is a great club and still is. All great clubs live on victories and titles; when they do not win, they go through turbulent times. I witnessed those moments, I watched everything closely and with a certain emotional connection. At the moment, FC Porto is in transition, renewing itself, believing, and rebuilding its mystique. Clubs are made up of difficult moments and moments when they rise from the ashes,” he commented.

The Nottingham Forest manager also spoke about Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa and the presidency of André Villas-Boas.

“I think FC Porto is on an upward path. I felt great sadness at the death of president Pinto da Costa, someone incomparable in terms of titles. Now the new president is intelligent and has ideas; he is trying to get the club back to the top again, competing for everything.”

Vítor Pereira also confirmed that Chris Wood is fit to play after recovering from injury, and highlighted Igor Jesus, who was also present at the pre-match press conference.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.